Exodus 21:25

Summary

The verse presents three paired terms for physical injuries, each linked by the preposition tachat ("in place of", H8478H), establishing a pattern of equivalence between an inflicted injury and its corresponding penalty. The three pairs move from burning, to open wound, to bruise/welt.

Key words

• kevi-Yah ("burning", H3555) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice to form the first pair; denotes injury by fire or heat.
• Ta.chat ("in place of", H8478H) — masculine singular noun in construct form, functioning as a preposition meaning "instead of" or "corresponding to"; repeated three times to structure each pair.
• Pe.tza' ("bruise", H6482) — masculine singular noun, appearing twice for the second pair; denotes a wound with broken skin.
• cha.bu.Rah ("wound", H2250) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice for the third pair; denotes a welt or mark left by a blow.

What the text says

The Hebrew syntax consists of three short nominal phrases, each following the identical pattern: [noun] tachat [same noun]. There is no verb in the verse itself; it continues the legal formula begun in the preceding verses of the chapter, where such reciprocal injury clauses are listed. The construct form of tachat here does not govern a following noun in the usual construct-genitive sense but functions grammatically as a preposition meaning "in place of," linking two occurrences of the same term to express strict correspondence between the injury inflicted and the penalty prescribed.

The three terms — keviyah ("burning", H3555), petza' ("bruise", H6482), and chaburah ("wound", H2250) — represent three distinct categories of physical harm, ordered without an explicit connecting conjunction between the pairs, giving the verse a terse, list-like rhythm characteristic of legal enumeration. Each noun is repeated exactly, so the grammatical structure itself enacts the principle of equivalence: the second occurrence of each noun mirrors the first, separated only by tachat.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint renders the three Hebrew nouns with katakauma ("burn"), trauma ("wound"), and molops ("welt/bruise"), each followed by anti ("instead of"), closely mirroring the Hebrew's repetitive tachat-structure. The Vulgate similarly uses adustionem... pro adustione, vulnus... pro vulnere, livorem... pro livore, preserving the same threefold repetition. Both versions maintain the same three-part correspondence found in the Hebrew, differing mainly in the specific semantic range of terms chosen for petza' (H6482) and chaburah (H2250), which the Greek and Latin distribute somewhat differently between "wound" and "bruise/welt" categories compared to the Hebrew's own distinctions between an open wound and a welt from blunt trauma.